Chavez capped it with a two-run drive to left off Bobby Korecky in the ninth, his 15th.

Colby Rasmus hit a solo home run and Adam Lind added a two-run shot for Toronto, which lost for the ninth time in 12 games.

Swisher opened the scoring with a two-run double to right off right-hander Chad Jenkins in the first.

"That kind of got us going and gave Hiroki a little cushion to start working with," Girardi said.

The top of the first ended when Curtis Granderson drilled a liner back to the mound that ripped the glove off Jenkins' left hand. The ball stayed in the glove as it flew into the air, and the rookie pitcher caught both glove and ball together to record the final out.

New York made it 3-0 in the second when Derek Jeter grounded into a bases-loaded double play.

The Blue Jays had five hits, including three doubles, against Kuroda through the first two innings but failed to score. Brett Lawrie was thrown out by Swisher after straying too far off second following his leadoff double in the first, while Yunel Escobar was picked off third by Martin in the second.

"We took ourselves out of a couple of those run-scoring situations with some anticipation that didn't work out well," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said.

Toronto scored in the fifth when Rasmus led off with a drive to right. The homer was his 23rd, matching his career high.

The Yankees broke it open with a four-run, bat-around sixth. Robinson Cano was hit on the left hand but stayed in the game, and Swisher singled before reliever Brett Cecil struck out Granderson and Raul Ibanez.

Jason Frasor came on and gave up Martin's homer. Chavez walked and Jeter lined a base hit to right before Ichiro Suzuki followed with an RBI single.

The Yankees made it 8-2 on Ibanez's fielder's choice groundout in the seventh, but Lind cut it to 8-4 by homering off Phelps in the bottom half, his 11th.

Suzuki doubled and stole third in the eighth before scoring on Cano's bloop single off Aaron Loup.

Making just his second major league start, Jenkins (0-3) allowed three runs and four hits in 3 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out two.

"I didn't throw a lot of strikes," Jenkins said. "I was kind of all over the place."

Game notes

Jeter's single in the sixth was his major league-leading 209th hit. ... Cano was scheduled to undergo precautionary X-rays after the game. ... New York 1B Mark Teixeira (strained left calf) had six at-bats in a simulated game, ran the bases and took ground balls Friday. He will play five innings of an instructional league game Saturday and likely will rejoin the Yankees once they return home for the final three games of the season, Girardi said.